US, Japan wave their joint flags

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama talk with US veterans who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

PRIME Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged Japan will never wage war again.

Symbolically, Mr Abe did so at the USS Arizona Memorial, built over the remains of the battleship USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

At 7.48am on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor with torpedo planes and bombers, pounding the US fleet there in the hope of destroying US naval power in the Pacific.

Mr Abe joined US President Barack Obama for the visit to commemorate Second World War dead.

Coming weeks before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the visit was aimed to highlight the strong US-Japan alliance in the face of rising tensions with China and amid concerns Mr Trump could have a complicated relationship with Tokyo.

"I offer my sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives here, as well as to the spirits of all the brave men and women whose lives were taken by a war that commenced in this very place,” Mr Abe said.

"We must never repeat the horrors of war again. This is the solemn vow we, the people of Japan, have taken.”